🕶️ Project Orion

🧵 In today's edition:

• 🕶️ Project Orion

• 🎥 Runway wants to make films using AI

• ✍️ AI agent takeover?

• 🛠️ AI Tools to Check Out

• 🤑 AI Fundraising News

• 🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

🕶️ Project Orion

Meta had a quality day at Meta Connect.

First - Meta just made its AI products more powerful and versatile, rolling out several new features aimed at improving user experience. 

Here’s what’s new: 

• Meta AI can now interact using voice on platforms like Messenger, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. You can ask questions, get explanations, or enjoy a laugh with familiar voices like Awkwafina and John Cena. Meta AI also added photo-based features, allowing users to share images and receive answers—whether it’s identifying a flower or editing photos by changing outfits or backgrounds.

• Another exciting development is a translation tool for Reels, currently being tested in English and Spanish for select creators. This tool translates audio and lip-syncs it to match the speaker’s language, opening content to more viewers.

• In the business world, Meta expanded its AI-driven tools, allowing thousands of businesses to provide customer support and facilitate commerce on WhatsApp and Messenger. Over a million advertisers have adopted Meta's generative AI ad tools, leading to notable improvements in click-through and conversion rates.

But the biggest reveal of the day? Meta introduced Orion, its first true augmented reality (AR) glasses, a major leap in wearable tech. Here’s the scoop:

Here’s the tea: 

• Orion combines the look of everyday eyewear with immersive AR capabilities, allowing users to interact with both digital and physical worlds seamlessly. 

• It features a large holographic display and contextual AI that can assist with tasks like multitasking or hands-free video calls. 

• With its lightweight design, transparent lenses, and the largest field of view in AR glasses to date, Orion delivers immersive experiences like life-sized holograms.

Overall: While Orion isn’t yet available to consumers, Meta is working to refine the technology, focusing on sharper displays, a smaller form factor, and future affordability. 

Ultimately, Orion is set to transform everyday interactions, helping users stay connected while remaining present in the real world.

Read more: Meta Blog

🎥 Runway wants to make films using AI

Runway, a leading GenAI company, has announced an exciting new initiative called The Hundred Film Fund - a program that aims to support filmmakers who incorporate AI technology into their storytelling process, offering grants ranging from $5,000 to $1 million for both short films and feature-length movies.

Key points of the initiative include:

1. Rapid decision-making, with applications typically being reviewed within 14 days.

2. Giving creators up to $2 million in credits for Runway's gen-AI system.

3. Giving access to an expert advisory panel that includes industry leaders like Jane Rosenthal (Tribeca Festival co-founder) and will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas frontman and tech investor).

Runway CEO Cris Valenzuela emphasizes that the company won't claim ownership rights to the projects or distribute the finished films.

Instead, the goal is to promote AI as a new filmmaking tool and connect participants with potential buyers.

This initiative follows Runway's recent partnership with Lionsgate, marking their first major deal with a Hollywood studio. Lionsgate expects significant production cost savings by using Runway's AI video generation tools.

Overall: The Hundred Film Fund builds upon Runway's previous AI Film Festival, which has showcased AI-powered short films since 2022. This new program represents a more substantial investment in the future of AI-assisted filmmaking.

As the debate around AI in creative industries continues, Valenzuela sees this technology as the next evolution in the long-standing relationship between technology and cinema. The fund aims to support both established and emerging creators who are pushing the boundaries of storytelling with AI tools.

Read more: Variety

✍️ AI agent takeover?

The software industry is shifting its focus from AI copilots, popularized by Microsoft, to more advanced AI agents. 

These agents are designed to assist users and take action on their behalf, marking a significant evolution in GenAI. 

Particularly, companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Workday are centering their AI strategies around agents, hoping they will offer productivity gains by automating tasks like filling out expense reports or handling customer service.

This transition builds on improvements in AI technology, such as enhanced memory, better planning, and integration with other systems through APIs. While current AI agents extend the functionality of copilots, experts remain cautious about their widespread use due to concerns about accuracy and reliability.

Despite the hype, AI agents have yet to significantly boost software companies' revenues. Investors and industry leaders are still trying to figure out how to effectively monetize this technology. Some companies, like Klarna, claim AI could lead to drastic workforce reductions, but most see this as an outlier scenario for now.

Overall: The adoption of AI agents could eventually disrupt traditional software pricing models, with companies exploring usage - or outcome-based pricing instead of user-based licensing. 

Read more: Financial Times

🛠️ AI Tools to Check Out

• Keak: Help your website self improve by using Keak’s fine-tuned model to generate variations and automatically launch A/B tests. Check it out!

• Holly: Helps you find, engage, and build relationships with candidates for recruitment and staffing agencies. Check it out!

• Syncly: Centralize all customer feedback and instantly categorize and reveal the underlying drivers of negative customer experience across the user journey to minimize churn. Check it out!

🤑 AI Fundraising News

• Tetrix raises $5M in Seed funding to empower investors with AI-driven insights, enabling more intelligent decisions in alternative investing markets.

• Prepared raises $27M in Series B funding to provide mission-critical multimedia and text to public safety agencies and the pioneer of assistive 911 technology.

🐦 Tweet Post of the Day

Another group of execs parted ways with OpenAI this week, the most notable being their CTO, Mira Murati.

Not to go all tin-foil hat on y’all, but… what did she see 👀 😂